Despicable

If you know me, or have seen my past posts, or saw my Iraq pictures, then you know I've got a weakness for the kids. If you know me, or have seen my past posts, or have heard some of my darker Iraq stories, then you know I've got a particularly vivid fear/hatred of car bombs.

 

Which is why this story out of Southeast Afghanistan yesterday ht me square in the gut. Some SOB decided to blow himself and his SUV up at checkpoint. Fine. Desperation. Asymmetric warfare. Terrorism. Whatever.

 

He didn't much seem to much care about the predictably adorable bunch of grade-schoolers walking through the checkpoint on their way to school. Last day of the year, no less.

 

14 kids -- 8 to 10 year olds -- killed on the spot. Several adults killed. Dozens more injured. (need nightmare fodder? see the video)

 

Disgusting, despicable, worthless, soul-less, asshole.

Christmas Mubarak!

A couple of weeks ago my boss and I (and our interpreter) spent the afternoon calling our Afghan colleagues to wish them a happy Eid. "Eid Mubarak!" he began every call, to the giggles, guffaws, and gratitude of all the folks we called.  So, today, Christmas Mubarak!

 

We spent the day working today, travelling all around the province, speaking with everyone from high government officials to village cops to dirt-smeared kids. I had a ball. Some of the highlights:

 

- During a very somber meeting with a government bigshot and a group of bearded elders in traditional dress to discuss the coalition activities in their area, cheesy, late-90's club music started playing out of nowhere. Sheepishly, one of the elders reached into his pocket and whipped out a cell phone waaaay cooler than mine. He shut the ringer off and we continued

 

- We spent an 2 hours driving not more than 10 miles to village out on the outskirts of the provincial capital. The road was so bad we saw probably 10 donkeys for every car, mostly old toyota corollas. I thought our Humvee was going to snap in two- I have no idea how these folks keeps these little Japanese sedans running for a decade on these roads. It's gotta be magic.

 

- Standing in front of a school that our predecessors built just a few months ago, a group of about 30 villagers insisted that we never do anything for them. "We built this school," we said, "and that clinic right over there." "Yeah, well," they said, "the road's terrible."

 

- As we walked down the crappy road to the new clinic, a kid pulls up beside me and starts chatting me up. "Baksheesh, give me pen." Since I didn't have enough for the several dozen kids walking behind us, I said sorry. He grinned and said "My name is Apenis." "No it's not, kid." Grin. "My name is Apenis." "Your name is not Apenis. My name is Felipe." He laughed and said "My name is Sabiullah." "OK, that sounds right."

 

- Met a Barney Fife village cop, bearded, five foot nothing, no gun, who spent an earnest afternoon shooing kids away from our trucks.  He was great. Obviously loves his job, loves his village, and takes a lot of simple pride in what he does.

 

I think the day made me nostalgic for road trips to Mexico with the family when I was a kid. We had a powder blue, '74 Chevy silverado with a camper in the back. The crappy roads, the mud brick homes, the donkeys, the endless streams of kids, the rock star treatment my dad would get every time he got out and started giving change and candy to every kid he saw. My mom yelling at him when he ran out of stuff- "if you don't have enough for everyone, don't start!"

 

It was a good day. A Christmas (eve) to remember.

Felipe in the News

Not really. But my new neighborhood is. Check out this Economist article on the Afghanistan troop surge and the latest strategy here. The best part is where the article specifically calls out one of our districts and our work with the shuras as a test case for the new strategy. Best comment on the article so far? My colleague here- from now on, "when I want to know what we will be doing in our AO (area of operations), I'll just check the Economist."

 

It's not so much that this is a surprise, but it's the notion that the nascent "secret" plan that's being cranked out by commanders as I write, that we are still figuring out how to most effectively implement, is coming back at me over the ether, via London, is just weird.  So much for operational security, eh? 

Air Force One

4 years ago, just before Christmas, I was summoned to my commander's office in Iraq. "Perez, he said, " you've been selected to represent the unit to greet a distinguished visitor to the base." "Who?" I asked nervously. "The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld."

 

At 3am the next morning I stood in the foyer of the headquarters building, housed in what used to be Uday and Qusay Hussein's summer palace. After a couple of hours, I heard Rummy's chopper land, watched as his personal security detail (private contractors, of course) entered and cleared the building. I listened as he spewed the party line about success in Iraq, touting the merits of his policies where I had seen them fail with my own eyes. 

 

He talked about the then "successful" push into Fallujah, which had not defeated the insurgency, but had only pushed the fight into the less heavily defended city of Mosul. Where we were. He talked about the "successful" efforts to train the Iraqi police force, a police force which almost entirely melted away when the insurgency attacked Mosul. Where we were.

 

As directed, I held my tongue. I should have held my nose. I skipped breakfast and walked back to my bunk bitter, more certain than ever that our leadership was failing us.

 

12 hours ago I was summoned to my commander's office here at Bagram. "Perez, he said, " you've been selected to represent the unit to greet a distinguished visitor to the base."

 

Respectfully, I declined.

Good Choice, Sir

The new/ old Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, just published his vision for reforming the Pentagon. After one read, he's right on. Some highlights:

• We've been fighting low-intensity wars since Vietnam- why are we still training and equipping for the Cold War? It's time devote the appropriate share of leadership and resources to the wars we are fighting -- Iraq, Afghanistan, the inevitable next counterinsurgency -- rather than the wars we fear we may (ie, Russia, China).

 

• Fix the bureaucracy, Part 1- The Army still does peacetime promotions, rewarding loyalty, longevity, and the ability to make friends and influence people. The ability to fight, win, and build lasting stability? Less important. Ridiculous. Criminal.

 

• Fix the bureaucracy, Part 2- The Pentagon weapons procurement system was so busy researching, designing, and building sophisticated, cutting edge, super-secret, sci-fi weapons of the future that it couldn't be bothered with something as mundane better armored vehicles to protect against improvised road-side bombs. Ridiculous. Criminal.

This stuff matters. It may not make a difference in my time here, but it could help save the life of the guy who replaces me